Carriers generally oppose this, because in this negotiation, they have leverage. In future negotiations, they don't because it's much more damaging to take away a channel from your customers than to never offer it in the first place. The operating costs are fairly small in the grand scheme of things. I think it was $3MM per month? Rights fees dwarf that. Even if you cut 15% of the operating budget, you're only saving $5.5MM per year. That was noted in one of the tweets - they could save about $5-$7MM annually if they cut the news division. While it's something that would be helpful, it's not the difference between success and failure at this point. The Rockets were just as greedy as the Astros. In different ways, certainly, but it was driven out of the same seeing $$$. Either that, or the Rockets were just stupid not to understand that their interests did not line up with the Astros. What makes you think he's expecting that? He's content to walk away from the whole thing and sign a lesser deal with no ownership stake with FSSW or someone like that. It's Comcast and the Rockets that are trying to prevent that. If no one cares about or wants to watch the Astros, why all the complaining that CSN-H wasn't available all summer? It seems no one should have cared and there was no harm to holding out during that period, right? If that were true, that's a net reduction in revenues of about $22MM per year assuming there are 3 million households in the general coverage region. For a network that costs about $36MM to run - that's not belt-tightening. But that's based on a whole lot of assumptions we don't have in fact. I think someone said one of the documents earlier suggested it was actually $0.50 on the dollar that was being offered. If true, that would basically be the entire operating budget. I don't understand this line of argument. We know for a fact that Crane is willing to walk away from this whole thing and sign with someone like Fox. If you believe he's a greedy ass who only cares about money and that CSN-H could work and make him a lot of money, then he has to be getting paid a whole bunch from FSSW or whomever to make the move. It seems people are complaining in so many different directions out of an anger towards him that complaints are now in conflict with each other. You can't simultaneously argue that he's a greedy pig and that FSSW won't give him much if we know he's willing to ditch CSN-H to go to FSSW.
This statement alone is why I don't put the full blame on Crane and the Astros. Comcast misrepresented the market and the Astros bought what they were selling. Granted it is Crane's fault that they didn't look into the market on their own and do their own due diligence, but that's not really the point. They depended on the supposed "experts" in the TV market to base their decision.
I agree. It's why it wasn't the Rockets or Astros responsibility to go out and drum up deals with carriers...it was solely Comcast's job. They're the ones in the industry...they're the ones applying the approach from experience where they created RSN's in different markets. It's their industry...not the Rockets' nor the Astros' I can't blame the Rockets or Astros for relying heavily on Comcast to advise the situation.
As I have said in the past, I have had personal dealings with Comcast through my firm. They are not exactly the smartest and brightest (they are so large they do not need to be). I would not be surprised if they just assumed they would get any number they wanted. They operate like the only option in town. I suspect that the Astros and Rockets just assumed that Comcast would come through. I cannot beat up Alexander or Crane too much because I believe that a majority of owners would operate the same way..... having said that, I don't think this would have happened to someone as hands on as Mark Cuban.
Crane was buying a team for a great deal of borrowed money. He owed it to his partners within the Astros ownership to do full due diligence. The same goes for the Rockets who don't seem to have an issue with the relationship.
I have a feeling Cuban is the type of owner that people hate until he becomes the owner of your team...then you love him. There is no way he'd take something like this laying down. As soon as he sniffed his team wouldn't be on TV, he'd have raised holy hell. He probably would've bailed and formed his own MAVTV station to compete with Comcast just on general principle.
Then why the complaints about Crane alienating Astros fans by not putting the team on TV if no one would have watched them anyway? And what does the rating of 1 out of 162 games have to do with anything?
I suspect that there's more to come today that shows this in a different light than Crane has shone on it. I'm certain some of this is that Crane doesn't have the cash to ride this out like Alexander and Comcast do and Cuban certainly would too.
Crane started alienating fans way before it was time for his double A team to hit the field and you know that. The ratings were poor in general.
Sure - and that's a legitimate argument. But it has nothing to do with CSN-H. Holding out on CSN-H would not be part of the alienation if no one was watching anyway.
I'm angry with the Astros and the Rockets for what they committed themselves to, but Comcast takes the cake. I will never ever purchase cable/phone/internet services from those bastards. Unfortunately, the events these past couple of years have seriously damaged the Astros brand.
Yes Sir! That just about sums it up nicely. Couldn't have happened to a more deserving a-hole and I hope Crane chokes on his own crap.
Crane is one short sighted moron. I know he has some money but I don't know how because the way he handles himself, Astros business and the purchase he seems about as smart as a DeVry graduate.
You don't have to be smart to run a logistics company. Any dumb ass can do that. There is only a couple thousand of them in Houston already. A lot of which are just a red neck with a dually and a gooseneck.
I don't like Crane much either...but I honestly can't blame him much for this. If I'm rich and I wanna buy a team, a bad tv deal won't stop me. I'll change everything I want once it's mine.
The thing which still makes me boil is the way they behaved last year, with all those deeply insulting commercials - (said in stupid stoner voice) 'Duude.. it's not your remote, it's your tv provider!' .. THAT is who they thought we were, people, don't forget that. And that Hastings guy. Lucky he slunk off like a rat off a sinking ship when he did. Unenviable job, sure, but his face was on all the insults... And the constant demand that we, the customers, do their job for them by harassing our tv providers, and the utterly dishonest claims that 'they took your Rockets and Astros away!' See I don't forget that stuff. When someone is deliberately dishonest like that, then you can never trust a word which ever comes from them again. And we now know that the main driving force behind causing us to MISS AN ENTIRE SEASON OF ROCKETS BASKETBALL was Crane. Nobody else. Crane. I honestly DO. NOT. CARE. if he loses money on the deal. If he can't operate his baseball team the same way every other team does, and strike a reasonable television deal, then he needs to get the heck out of Dodge and let someone else own the team who understands the nature of the business. Now before certain people want to jump in and complain that the other two entities are as much or more at fault.. Yes. I know that Comcast sucks as a company. They do. I have no doubt that they deliberately misled and misrepresented the revenue potential to both the Astros and the Rockets, with, I believe, the ultimate goal of acquiring CSNH and Astros rights on the cheap in a fire sale from a financially vulnerable new owner. I would not be surprised by that one bit. Comcasts now-claims that they are 'surprised' by the non-goldmine nature of this market is just ridiculous. There is no way they committed the moeny and resources to this endeavor without SOMEONE over there having done their due diligence. It's just that Comcast as a company operates with the mindset that it sees the word 'Sucker' printed on everyone else's forehead, and I believe this was done deliberately, to both increase Comcast's cable presence in this market, as well as to grab the network and rights to possibly both the Astros AND the Rockets. They suck. Everybody knows that. But Crane and Alexander sure as HELL should have known it. Maybe someone should have pointed at Portland on a map for those guys. And Alexander? I think he looked at it as a risk, but a risk worth taking, and we are seeing the exit strategy in play now, in the event the risk did not pan out.And I think it probably really burns him up that his supposed 'partner' in Crane has deliberately kept the Rockets off of the majority of televisions for over an entire year now, and he wants no more part of it. But any time you start to feel any sort of empathy or sympathy for any of those parties involved.. just remember those stupid and insulting commercials - that'll clear your head..
